


The Agent and the Lab Rat

by isloremipsumafterall (orphan_account)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bones style AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-18 22:58:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2365121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/isloremipsumafterall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Our code word is not Moby Dick. We do not have a code word.”</p><p>or</p><p>Fitz let's Jemma talk him in to doing field work for the FBI and his handler is the most annoying man he's ever met.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Agent and the Lab Rat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [plinys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/gifts).



Fitz let Jemma talk him in to it; she had wanted more experience outside of the lab and had them reassigned from their indoor labwork to material gathering out in the field helping the FBI identify things from crime scenes. The one stipulation though was that they would have their own FBI handlers due to him and Jemma being a big deal to the Smithsonian.

It all would have been fine if not for the FBI agents they got assigned with. Well. Skye was okay, she was Jemma’s handler, but Trip, his own handler, was a pain in Fitz’s ass. Not literally. Not that he wanted it literally, though he had thought of it because Trip was a very attractive man in a suit but that was all beside the point.

* * *

 

_(Their first meeting had gone like this:_

_The other man had extended his hand out to Fitz and offered a wide grin, all dazzling teeth and welcoming, “Doctor Fitz, I’m Agent Triplett. Everyone just calls me Trip.”_

_Fitz shook the offered hand, returning it with his own smile. “Just Fitz is fine.”_

_“All right then. So, you wanna get right in to it?”_

_Fitz blinked, there was no way he was reading Trip’s tone right just then, it had sounded like it was laden with innuendo. “Beg your pardon, in to what?”_

_“The crime scene.” The corners of Trip’s mouth twitched in amusement. “What else would I mean?”_

_Fitz’s eyes narrowed, oh he knew exactly what he could have meant. Which would be so terrific for Fitz, working alongside this man who seemed to look at Fitz like an object of amusement judging by these last few seconds; he’d have to remember to dumb down his words a bit just so this agent could understand him._

_“Course,” Fitz tried to brush it off like he hadn’t noticed what Trip was up to at all. “Shall we?”_

_Across the hall he could see Jemma and Skye shaking hands and laughing and was momentarily jealous that she was getting along with her agent better. Maybe he could ask for a trade, Jemma would probably get along with Trip. It was something to think about as he raced to catch up with other man who was already walking towards the parking lot.)_

* * *

 

It’s just that his first impression of Trip was in fact both right and wrong. He had assumed that Trip was like every other agent he had meant and wouldn’t be able to keep up at all with him. He can admit he was wrong about that.

* * *

 

_(Their first crime scene goes like this:_

_“Well that’s…just…lovely.” Fitz drew out the words, trying not to gag from the smell of the crime scene. He regrets agreeing to going with Trip so soon because now the two of them actually have to wait for Jemma and Skye since he’s not going to contaminate the body until Jemma’s okayed the area for him._

_This means that he and Trip are leaning against Trip’s car in the warm sun which is also something he hasn’t been prepared for and he’s going to burn he can feel it already._

_“Perks of the job,” Trip shrugs. “Ain’t glamorous doc, you sure you wanna do this?”_

_He was thinking of high tailing it out of there until Trip said that. Now he just wants to prove to Trip that he can. “It’s fine.”_

_Fitz’s phone buzzes to alert him that there’s a text from Jemma informing him that they’re still fifteen minutes away and perhaps he should take this time to talk to his new handler and get to know him. It’s only because the alternative is boredom that he asks Trip what it’s like to work as a field agent._

_“It’s okay.” Trip shrugs. “View’s not always the best and the boss can be a bit…determined.”_

_“What’s that supposed to mean?”_

_“You’ve heard of Coulson, right?”_

_Fitz nods, Coulson’s technically his boss too now leading over the investigative field teams, he and Jemma looked him after their reassignment went through. The only thing he really knows is that at some point Coulson was shot and assumed dead and at some point has made it his life’s goal to pursue every case involving HYDRA, the nickname for the underground mob that plagued the city._

_“A while ago his partner and protégé betrayed him; turned out to be moles planted by HYDRA. Ever since then Coulson’s been on us to solve as many cases as we can to get them all put behind bars. It’s like the man’s Captain Ahab on a mad quest for his white whale or something.”_

_The reference throws him for a second, given his first assessment of Trip he would never have expected him to be quoting classic literature. Without even thinking it the words pop out of his mouth. “Have you even read Moby Dick.”_

_Trip looks a bit hurt by that. “Yeah. Have you?”_

_“Well. No.” Fitz flounders, embarrassed to be called out on that._

_Trip snorts and looks away and now Fitz feels idiot. He hasn’t felt like an idiot since he was in elementary school, it isn’t a nice feeling and though a part of him knows it isn’t actually Trip’s fault since he started it he still blames Trip for making him feel this way._

_They spend the rest of the time quiet until Jemma and Skye arrive. Jemma immediately starts in on the body telling Fitz the areas he can go near without disturbing her work and he gets to work looking at the strange rust that’s on the ground while emphatically not looking at the body. He does not understand how Jemma does it._

_Skye and Trip are talking to each other behind them, probably about them since they keep glancing over in their direction but whatever she says relaxes Trip a bit because he’s smiling again and he really does look quite nice when he does that._

_“What do you think of your handler Fitz?” Jemma asks him in a low enough voice that the other two can’t hear them._

_“He’s a bit smug.” Fitz responds._

_Jemma’s looks confused at that. “He didn’t seem to be back at the office.” She switches to a look of suspicion. “Fitz did you say something?”_

_“Me? He’s the one making Moby Dick references like a pretentious wanker, Simmons.” He flushing now but he blames the sun. “It isn’t fun. Do you want to switch?”_

_“No. I quite like Skye. She’s very pleasant to be around.”_

_Of course Jemma gets the handler that’s nice, she’s Jemma. She gets all the nice things; they just come to her like she’s some kind of Disney princess. Fitz feels like the sidekick who’s there for comedic relief._

_“Oh Fitz.” Jemma sighs. “Just…give him another shot. I’m sure he’s not that bad.”_

_“So what’s the story so far?” Skye’s voice cuts through the air, making them both jump._

_Jemma jumps in to business mode. “I’ve done a preliminary exam and while I can’t give you an exact cause of death until we get him back to the lab I can tell you that he does have several post mortem bruises on his wrist as well as a zygomatic fracture.”_

_Skye looks confused so Fitz decides to takes pity on her, hovering his hand over his cheek as an example. “That’s a-”_

_“Hairline fracture in the cheekbone” Trip cuts him off and he’s grinning at Fitz._

_So he was wrong in his first assessment of Trip being an idiot. Thus leads him to a second assessment that Trip is clever and needs to be watched.)_

* * *

 

Where Fitz is right though is that Trip really does seem to view him as a source for amusement. He’s always interrupting Fitz as he’s explaining something. On one hand it’s nice that he doesn’t actually have to explain it. On the other hand Trip is still annoying when he does that. This must be what other agents feel like when Fitz and Jemma do that to them.

But it’s not like Trip knows everything, just enough to understand Fitz and it turns out that’s why he got place on this detail in the first place. Trip still seems to be of the mindset though that he might as well have as much fun with this as he possible can. He scans over Fitz in a slow languid gaze full of (what Fitz thinks of as false) promise when he knows Fitz is looking. (granted Fitz may have done a few look overs of Trip, but only when he knew he could get away with it.) He meets Fitz for breakfasts and drags him out of the lab to get lunch or dinner depending on the time. He even teaches Fitz some defensive moves and tells him of Trip’s grandfather who was some kind of spy in the war. He’s situated himself in to Fitz’s life and if he isn’t lying it’s not terrible during the moments that Trip isn’t trying to drive him crazy.

Those moments are few and far in between.

* * *

 

_(Their fifth car ride to a crime scene goes like this:_

_“I think we need a code word.” Trip looks over at him but Fitz hardly takes notice of it as he’s reading the report on his tablet._

_“Fitz?”_

_He jerks up at his name and he agrees without really thinking. “Yes. Code word.”_

_“Should be something that has meaning to us. But that we wouldn’t say all the time. Same as it would be during sex.”_

_Trip says it so casually that Fitz is nodding along before his brain catches up. “Wait. What?”_

_“Could be your name. No one’s gonna be saying that one during sex,_ Leopold. _” He regrets Trip finding out about that._

 _“You’re one to talk_ Antoine _.” He retorts, hating that his face heats up at the way Trip says his name even if it is mocking._

_Trip shrugs because he’s a freaking duck in water and nothing sticks to him._

_“What do we even need a code word for anyway?” Fitz finally questions._

_“In case of emergency, if you’re ever in trouble and can’t say you’re in trouble in front of whoever.”_

_“How would I even tell you if you weren’t there?” This whole situation is ridiculous. This is one of Trip’s what if question he likes to play on long drives again._

_Trip digs something out of his pocket while one hand remains on the wheel and throws it in Fitz’s direction. “FBI cleared use of those just in case. Jemma and Skye have them too.”_

_He cracks open the case to see a pair of communicators in there that fit snug in someone’s ear. He only knows that because he designed the things. “Do Jemma and Skye have a code word too?”_

_He’s just joking but Trip nods. “They made one after their second mission.”_

_Of course they did, Jemma and Skye have been inseparable and Fitz tries not to feel stung by that but it’s hard not to when it was just him and Jemma for so long._

_“Ours could always be Moby Dick.”_

_Because Trip won’t let him live that down. “Our code word is not Moby Dick. We do not have a code word.”_

_Trip is just grinning and nodding like he’s letting Fitz believe that.)_

* * *

 

So Fitz is stuck with this smugly annoying attractive man who’s his handler with a code word. That sounds terrible in his head because he’s just thinking of Trip’s double meaning with code word and all the implications that come with it. It doesn’t help that he’s seen Trip shirtless on one of their days off. That man isn’t fair on a lot of levels.

* * *

 

_(The first time he has to use the code word goes like this:_

_Their case has HYRDA written all over it. For once Trip is oddly serious and Fitz sort of misses all the joking around because it’s unsettling to see him like that with his face tight and drawn and no trace of his regular grin. Fitz can’t believe he misses that._

_He’s also insisting on the communicators to be worn at all times and it’s only his tone that makes the protests die on his lips and put the communicator in. It’s what ends up saving his life because HYDRA follows him home, shoving a chloroform rag over his mouth and dragging him off to a warehouse because Fitz apparently lives in a bad action movie._

_As soon as he wakes up tied to a chair he’s yelling. “MOBY DICK! TRIP! MOBY DICK.”_

_Turns out that Trip was already tracking him when he didn’t answer his phone because he doesn’t even take five minutes of the HYRDA agent threatening Fitz before he’s bursting in with Skye, another agent named May and a whole SWAT team._

_Jemma’s in the back van too, ready to check him out though Trip gives him a pat down before he takes him out there, one that’s filled with far too many lingering hands. He hovers over Fitz too as Jemma does her examination, tension not flooding out of his shoulders until Jemma clears him._

_“See, perfectly fine, you can stop your mothering now.” Fitz tries to use his regular annoyance with Trip to hide that he’s actually still shaken up about this whole thing._

_Trip must see through him since he rolls his eyes, getting a firm grasp on Fitz’s bicep and pulling him back to Trip’s car._

_The ride back is awkward because Trip keeps staring at him._

_"You should be watching the road." Fitz is scowling in the passenger seat._

_"It’s a red light." the agent comments._

_"Doesn’t matter." He grumbles though he catches Trip’s face in the washed out lights from street. He’s grinning. “What?_

_“You used our code word.”_

_No one should be able to make that word sound so dirty, Fitz kind of hates Trip a bit for it. “Don’t say it like that.”_

_"Hey man you spent all that time saying you never would and you_ _did_ _.”_

_"It was a moment of panic."_

_"In which you can only remember our code word, I’m touched."_

_"Green light." Fitz announces loudly, ignoring Trip again._

_"If you’re good for a go then so am I."_

_Trip’s smugness in that is annoying only in the sense that Fitz is going to take him up on that offer someday. Or right now in the car because he’s full of adrenaline now and wants to burn it off and sex with Trip is sounding like a fantastic way to do that._

_Fitz is thinking of a way to back pedal and take up that offer when they pull up to a building that is emphatically not his place.)_

* * *

 

Which leads him to the here and now, four months after Trip’s been made his partner and twenty minutes after his kidnapping.

“This isn’t my place.”

“Nope.” Trip draws the word out. “It’s better. It’s my place.”

Well that was slightly unexpected. There’s so much implication in that backed up the heady stare that’s Trip giving him.

“You coming?” Trip’s giving him a way out but there’s something in the way he says it that Fitz realizes he’s asking Fitz about more that tonight. That if Fitz said no he’d drive Fitz back to his place but then their partnership wouldn’t actually be the same after that. But if he says yes it won’t be the same either, could change in to something new that helps fill the sudden void of loneliness he’s been feeling that Trip’s been filling anyway.

Fitz could say no; he chooses yes.

(He does end up punching Trip in the arm when Trip moans out ‘Ahab’ in the middle of their make out session as joke. This is what he gets. He doesn’t regret it anyway.)

 

 

 

 


End file.
